1. Field of the Invention
Certain embodiments of the invention relate to Bluetooth® devices. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a system and method for sending identical data over several Bluetooth® links.
2. Background Art
Bluetooth® wireless technology is set to revolutionize personal connectivity by providing freedom from wired connections. Bluetooth® is a specification for a small form-factor, low-cost radio solution providing links between mobile computers, mobile phones and other portable and handheld devices.
Bluetooth® wireless technology is an international, open standard for allowing intelligent devices to communicate with each other through wireless, short-range communications. This technology allows any sort of Bluetooth® compliant device—from computers and cell phones to keyboards and headphones—to make its own connections, without wires, cables or any direct action from a user. Bluetooth® is currently incorporated into numerous commercial products including laptops, PDAs, cell phones, and printers, with more products coming out every day. Bluetooth® devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs, are evolving to become more complex as such devices are adapted to transmit and receive audio and video data.
A user may configure a Bluetooth® device (i.e., a master device) to stream identical data to other Bluetooth® devices (i.e., slave devices) forming a piconet. Upon detection of the other devices of the piconet, the master device forms one Bluetooth® link (e.g., an ACL link or an L2CAP link) with each of the slave devices. The ACL or L2CAP link defines the communication protocol that enables communication of ACL data packets, for example, between the master device and each of the slave devices. Typically, each Bluetooth® device includes a Bluetooth®-enabled host and a host controller. The host and host controller communicate via the host controller interface (HCI). The HCI is a protocol layer of the several protocol layers that underpin Bluetooth® wireless technology.
When identical data is sent to a plurality of slave devices over a plurality of Bluetooth® links, the data sent over each link must first be sent over the HCI. The host controller interface restricts data throughput rates when the master device is configured to stream to several Bluetooth® slave devices. That is, when the master device streams identical data to n slave devices, the data is sent n times over the host controller interface. Sending multiple copies of identical data over the HCI may cause several undesirable effects. For example, delays caused by the HCI bottleneck may cause the interruptions in reception of streaming data by one or more of the slave devices. Furthermore, the master device may experience heavy CPU loads and excess power consumption. Increasing data throughput rates on the HCI when multi-streaming data to several slave devices will result in better synchronization between master and slave devices, and reduce power consumption and CPU load requirements.